My mumbling and grumbling usually started after about 13 leg lunges or 3 burpees.
{I mean, really. Is the body meant to do burpees? I think not.}
My good friend and fabulous trainer at the Y, Jody, would hear these not-so-under-the-breath murmurs and still encourage and push and get me to where I needed to be. And then I would remind her:
I’m not complaining. Just informing.
And then we’d laugh.
Exercising has never been one of my top 150 Happy Places. And there is merit in letting your trainer know how you’re feeling, right? {Insert smilely face here.} So I’ll give myself some grace for these rumblings.
But then I think of all the other times when I’m not at the Y that murmuring and grumbling and complaining become too much of an immediate and natural response. Not so good.
I wonder if I would have felt at home with the Israelites as they made their way out of Egypt.
Think about this…
The Israelites saw the Red Sea waters part to allow them to escape from the cruelty of the Egyptians. {Now that’s a miracle!} For three days after that they didn’t have any water. So what do they do instead of trusting that this really big God can help them out? “…the people grumbled.”
God provides another miracle to bring them water.
Then they’re upset about the food. “…you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” {Probably not, right?}
Another miracle. Quail dropping from the heavens.
Then they run out of water again. “So they quarreled with Moses and said, ‘Give us water to drink.”
{Don’t these people get it? They have access to The One who will supply all their needs, and all they do is grumble. Hmmm…}
Another miracle. Water.
Yeah, I think I can relate to these Israelites.
Complaining comes a bit too easy sometimes. And almost always, it really is complaining. Not informing.
So on November 27, 2014, when I re-read I Thessalonians 5:16-18 (I noted the date by the verse in my Bible because it just zinged my heart), I knew that God was asking me to really consider my moments of ingratitude, lack of faith, and just bumbling grumbling. That verse has been after me for months.
Be joyful always;
Pray continually;
Give thanks in all circumstances,
For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
It’s time for me to do as these verses say. And where this starts for me is…Stop the grumbling. The complaining. The whining. (Even when I’m doing burpees.)
This time of Lent is a time to slow down and take stock of what’s going on in our hearts, our minds, and our souls. Henri Nouwen says “…it is a penitential period of time during which people attempt to become more sensitive to the role of sin in their lives…balanced by an emphasis on the love and acceptance that God still has for humanity…”
I love that.
My journey of contemplation during the next 40 days begins here in I Thessalonians.
It feels both challenging and scary, and is filled with great anticipation and hope.
May God teach me, encourage me, be gracious to me, convict me, and create something new within me.
